A Hero By Accident!

By Nidhi W. Pednekar

The sun shone through the leaves bathing everything it touched with a warm, yellow glow. The calm and cool breeze made Milo’s fur flutter as he sat sun-bathing in front of his human, Ishanvi’s, house. His resemblance to a giant stone on curling up led to the nickname ‘Stone Dog’ for Milo among the children in the neighbourhood. Although he was the friendliest dog ever, the adults asked the children to keep a distance from him, only because he was a stray dog. That’s how it was on that day too. Many kids glanced at him, longing to pet him, only to be met with furious glares from their parents’ eyes. The only human who was friends with him was, Ishanvi. She wasn’t allowed to have a pet, but she adored dogs. She had been the one to name him Milo and he loved his name! He sat patiently, waiting for Ishanvi to return from school, but with how perfect the weather was, he fell asleep unknowingly.

Milo was woken up by a commotion. A police van stood in front of the house opposite to Ishanvi’s. Milo ventured closer, hoping to figure out what the matter was. A lady with greying hair, having steel-rimmed glasses, and wearing a pink floral dress was narrating something to the Police Commissioner. “I think it must’ve occurred an hour ago. No one was home. When I entered, my jewellery was all gone!” she exclaimed and unable to compose herself, she burst into tears. Milo sensed a crime had occurred, but he didn’t know what to do, hence, he went back to his spot and lied down, trying to drift back to sleep, but it was too loud to sleep. However, just then he caught a glimpse of Ishanvi coming from school. He barked loudly and wagged his tail. Ishanvi petted him, but she soon went to see what all the commotion was.

Although a few hours had passed since the crime occurred, the Police had no clue where the thief was. Furthermore, it was highly likely that the thief would strike again. This vicinity had some wealthy people, after all. Ishanvi sat with Milo outside her house, speaking to him, as she did on many occasions, “Do you think the police will find the robber? I really want to help Mrs. Sen, but I don’t know anything, I wasn’t even home when it happened. She’s always been so helpful and kind to my family and me. You know what, it’s decided, I’m going to help find that thief,” and turning to Milo, “You’ll help me won’t you Milo?” Milo replied yes with a bark.

Soon, Ishanvi started digging around for information, asking all neighbours and shopkeepers near the ‘crime scene.’ While she was gathering information, Milo was digging up something in Mrs. Sen’s backyard. He had smelled a nice, crunchy bone and ran toward the yard to dig it up. He was already covered in mud and dirt when he heard Ishanvi calling for him in the distance. Milo wasn’t that concerned. He knew his goal was the bone that lay under all that mud. He barked a few times to let Ishanvi know where he was. After digging for a few minutes and hearing a clink of metal, which Milo pushed to the side along with the mud, he finally pulled out the bone wagging his tail in delight. 

As Milo sat there chewing the lovely bone, muddy all over, Ishanvi came running to the backyard, panting but with a bright smile on her face. “Milo! Milo! You will not believe this! Look at what-” She stopped mid-sentence, staring at the sight before her. Her eyes widened at the sight of Mrs. Sen’s missing jewellery and Milo next to it. She rushed to Mrs. Sen with it and narrated how Milo had accidentally found it. Mrs. Sen was overjoyed, and so were Ishanvi’s parents. 

However, that wasn’t the end of it. While Milo had found the loot, Ishanvi had found the looters. She had received a drone as a gift from her uncle, which she had decided to use to her advantage. She decided to fly it all across the town in case she could spot the missing jewellery. Just then, something had caught her eye. Four people were cautiously making their way towards the Sen residence. They seemed suspicious owing to the way they were peering behind them as if someone might catch them and due their outfits as well. They were all wearing dark-coloured, long sleeved t-shirts which seemed out of place now that it was so close to summer vacation. However, the thing that gave them away the most was perhaps the masks and skull caps they wore. She kept the drone away from their vision and alerted a police officer patrolling the area. When they arrived, the ‘thieves’ were caught red-handed and were now behind bars. The reason for their visit became perfectly clear now that Milo had found the missing jewellery. The Police decided to reward Ishanvi with a cash prize. To award Milo, the Police offered to take him as a police dog, but Milo was satisfied with his simple life as a stray dog with Ishanvi as his friend. Ishanvi’s parents were impressed with Milo, and decided to, finally, let Ishanvi take in Milo as a pet. Milo was extremely happy and so was Ishanvi. The next day, a report was posted on the local newspaper titled, ‘Milo: A Hero by Accident!’

By Nidhi W. Pednekar